The Release 55 Livestream(s) items were all Lord British themed in honor of his birthday which falls on July 4th. In honor of his birthday the items either have the silver serpent or the Lord British full crest on them. They are also themed around things that Lord British loves like fireworks, space, and magic! Almost all of the items went live in Release 57. This week we are revealing the The Silver Serpent Wand made by our very own Scott “Scottie” Jones! This final R55 item will go live in Release 58.

Lord British Silver Serpent Wand:

Shroud at Dragon Con

Richard “Lord British” Garriott attended Dragon Con once again this year. As some of you may know he has attended every Dragon Con since the very first! Richard gave a talk entitled “All Things Lord British” and also served on a panel about early programming on the Mac with Steve Wozniak! Lord British then attended a few player gatherings including Karaoke!

At the request of our players and to support the new “Full Water Lots” we added in Release 57 we have added the ability to upgrade land lots to Player Owned Town (taxed) Water Lots via a service token! Village, Town, and City lots can be converted and we will begin processing these requests as soon as Release 58! So if you have been wishing to live in a ship, lighthouse, watermill, etc. now is your chance!

It is that time of year again when spooky holidays like Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are celebrated! That means it is time for us to bring back recurring rare items to the Add On Store like Day of the Dead Masks, Spider Web Cloaks, and Zombie Pets! Get them while you can because they will expire until next year on November 30, 2018! As a bonus these items are part of the Dungeon Weekend sale! Here’s the complete list of Spooky Recurring items that went live this week:

Last Friday we talked about Tier Markers. We explained how we label each scene with a Tier Marker to indicate the level of challenge of that scene. We used our existing scenes like Hallowed Plains to illustrate how the system works and highlighted some of our recent changes to the system including the addition of the “+” to indicate varying degrees of challenge and the addition of Tiers 6-10 (was previously only 1-5) to better indicate higher levels of challenge for our top level players. If you missed the livestream it is available for viewing on YouTube:

It was also the first Friday we started tracking the Release 57 stretch goals and we hit two of them already! See below for more details.

The Release 57 Livestream is today Friday September 7! All Avatars from around the world are welcome to join us in the livestream activities. We will be doing deep dives, answering questions, having sales, handing out prizes, and tracking towards stretch goals. In honor of the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature the theme for this livestream is Dungeons which are previewing in R57 and will go live as soon as Q4!

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Central Time Zone)

Monthly livestreams are on Twitch and include answers to your gameplay questions, world building tours, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! Here is the schedule:

3PM: Introductions

3:30PM: Deep Dive 1: Player Made Dungeons

4:30PM: Q&A

5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Fishing

6:30PM: Q&A

7PM: Ending Announcements

STRETCH GOALS (Dungeon Themed!)

As a special bonus, we are offering funding rewards to any player that makes a minimum purchase of $5 during a twelve hour window during the day of the livestream, on September 7 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (September 7 17:00 to September 8 05:00 UTC). In honor of the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature the theme for this livestream is Dungeons which are previewing in R57 and will go live as soon as Q4!

All purchases during the twelve hour window will count towards the stretch goals, not just the four hours of the livestream! Also participation in the Rewards Program counts towards our stretch goal totals! Please note that we have extended availability of the stretch goals to every Friday of the release for 12 hours per the new Stretch Goal Tracking Changes. Last Friday was the first day of tracking and we already hit two stretch goals!

ACHIEVED $10K: /rolldice

ACHIEVED $25K: Flame Trap Decorations (non-harmful)

$35K: Candle Helm

$50K: Spike Trap & Arrow Trap Decorations (non-harmful)

$65K: Unique Dungeon Entrance Eternal Pattern

$80K: Torture Set: Torture Chair, Torture Table, Rack

$90K:Key Themed Weapon Set: Sword, Mace, Polearm

$100K: Unique Dungeon Room Blueprint

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available until Release 60 at the earliest. We will keep you updated!

12 HOURS OF SALES:

We will be having twelve hours of sales around the livestream from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (Septermber 7 17:00 to September 8 05:00 UTC)! Items in the following categories will be on sale at approx. 20% off. As noted above, all purchases during this time will count towards the stretch goals!

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. Enter for a chance to win a prize by either logging into the game and typing “Roll the dice” into chat OR by purchasing any item from our store during the livestream!

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Gold Crowns, AND receive rare stretch-goal items from our monthly livestreams! This program automatically enrolls you in the monthly livestreams (counts as the $5 minimum purchase) along with other perks.

For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

9 Gold Crowns of the Obsidians every month

Automatic Participation in the Monthly Livestream Stretchgoals (counts as the $5 minimum purchase)

Exclusive Title every 3 months

3 Months: Keeper of the Faith

6 Months: Keeper of the Word

9 Months: Keeper of the Vow

12 Months: Keeper of the Flame

Pick any Dye Pack every 6 months

Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including:

Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity

Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance

Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills

Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills

Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage

Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills

Weekend Flash Sale: Dungeons

In Release 57 we previewed the upcoming Player Made Dungeon feature with 5 example static dungeons that can be placed on your property. To celebrate we are putting the four dungeon entrance patterns (that come with example dungeons), dungeon related items, torture items, and spooky items are on sale this weekend!

Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

Every month we are offering four professional-grade bundles based on an Avatar’s roles in Novia:

Adventurer’s Bundle – some of the highest grade gear available in the land, ready to take a novice adventurer to the journeyman level! This month we are featuring armor from Robyn Hood (@ldykllr)

Crafter’s Bundle – Are you an aspiring Blacksmith? The Blacksmith’s Starter Kit comes complete with all the items you will need to get started!

Taming Bundle – Have you thought about being a tamer? Since taming is getting some love (and tameable Wyvern’s coming R58), this bundle will help you get started!

Consumeable Bundle – Have you heard the news? We can now start dying some furniture! Canvas furniture was first this release, so this bundle will give you all the craftable dyes and a set of furniture/banners to get you started!

These bundles will be raffled on September 28th (the day after R58 release). Tickets are on sale now and priced especially for beginners at 500gp each bundle. No matter how many tickets a character purchases, they will only get a single chance at winning that bundle – so purchase only one ticket per bundle!

We are hosting the ticket vendors and a display table of what each bundle entails at Market Square, at the south end of NoMa (if you check in with the town crier, it is the only City lot in town and under Governor Robyn Hood’s name). As you wander past all of our merchants, please do some window shopping and take a look at what all of our residents have to offer! The team putting together the inaugural Bundles are the same team who do our Weekend Promos, so please patronize our promos as well! [1], [2]

This Monday was our monthly dance party that traditionally follows each release. These are organized by Amber Raine of Avatars Radio, our community run radio station. Each month a governor of one of our Player Owned Towns hosts the party in a different location and our very own DJ Darkstarr spins tunes. He is just one of many community DJ’s and the radio station is completely funded by the community so please consider supporting their Patreon!

After each dance party DJ Darkstarr posts his playlist in the Avatar’s Radio thread in the Fire Lotus Tavern section of the Forums. That same thread contains the latest dance party schedule and updates about other DJ’s parties and sets.

Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs).
The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy!
Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more.

With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month.
This month, we’re giving away a Gothic Village Inn – valued at $100!
You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card, SOTACON Austin 2018 tickets, and other cool prizes.
AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes.

Relics by Rild is producing Issue #2 of the official Shroud of the Avatar comic. Kickstarter is being used to fund printing & help pay the artist & writer.

SotA: New Beginnings is a graphic adventure set in New Britannia, the world of Lord British’s revolutionary new game, Shroud of the Avatar™. It tells the story of Arianna and Christopher, a young couple who have fled their own cruel world through a magic portal. Separated on their arrival, we follow their journey as they attempt to make sense of this new world and find each other once more.

This issue is again illustrated by Indi Martin(Tortoise & Hare Creations), and written in collaboration with Rick Hart aka Elgarion. It will be produced and distributed by Relics by Rild, under official license by Portalarium, Inc. This issue has 32 pages of adventure! (prior to backer-generated content).

Our goal is very simple – to bring you this beautiful new issue of New Beginnings, and to continue producing issues going forward.

As the publisher of this comic, my aim is to create a viable model to keep releasing issues. Countless hours have been put in by Indi and Rick, and I want to pay them to keep telling the story. To further this end, we sold ad space in Issue #1. A special thank-you to all our previous patrons!

The thing is, we want to use this space for more than just ads, and we want it to be relevant. So we’re calling it Content Space, and inviting the entire SotA community to make an impact in this print analog to the game. In the spirit of CrowdSharing, we want to allow our backers to enhance and develop the space just as they have done online in New Britannia.

Sponsor at the Baron level to get your name in the Program, we mail the Coin to you anywhere in the world, and deliver the Cloak in game. Your contribution goes to shipping costs and supporting the event.​

WANT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS A SPONSOR AT THE DINNER?

Sponsor at the Baron level for your Dinner ticket, Coin, Cloak, plus your name, guild, player town, or company in the Program (Guest List and Sponsor List). Increase your level of Sponsorship and get more!​

ADVERTISE YOUR GUILD, PLAYER TOWN, OR COMPANY!

Sponsor at the Viscount level to get your name, promotional paragraph, and web link in the Program (Guest List and Sponsor List). Also get Dinner, Coin and Cloak. You don’t have to physically attend to Sponsor.​

SPECIAL NOTICE: After Dinner on October 12, many of us (including Lord British) will drive 8 minutes to Richard Garriott’s Curtain Theater to see the Baron’s Men Theatrical Production of Shakespearean “Henry IV Part 1”. Ticket box office opens at 7:00 PM, Theater opens at 7:30 PM, Play starts at 8:00 PM. Get tickets ahead of time or at the box office there. Continue a Grand Evening with us!

As many of you know, the AERIE Fund provides members of our community relief for catastrophic medical, financial, and natural disaster events. Thanks to your support we’ve raised funds for emergency chemotherapy, Hurricane Harvey disaster relocation, and even helped a fellow Avatar’s family get through the winter months when their heating system went out. You never know when bad things are gonna happen, and we try to be there to help when they do.

Now, we have a new call to action:

Bob Cooksey (a.k.a Bob the Builder) who was part of the Portalarium team for many years recently had a horrible fall. This fall led to Bob breaking nine of his ribs. This incident sent Bob the Builder to the emergency room.

The good news is Bob is going to make a full recovery.

The bad news: being between medical insurance plans turned a nasty fall into a swallowing hole of debt owed to the ambulance company, emergency room, and additional clinics.

The bright side: AERIE Fund intervened and paid off a significant amount of Bob’s medical bills related to the fall. Again, thanks to all of your support, we were able to help Bob worry less about finances and focus on what matters: healing and moving onto the next phase of his life. But there’s still more to do!

Here’s how you can help:

We’d like to make Bob whole again (and 100% wipe away the financial burden of the fall), so we’re going to help Bob do a little bit of community fundraising. We encourage all of our supporters to chip in (what you can) and support the Cult of Bob initiative all September-long. Any (and all) financial assistance will go directly to Bob Cooksey to help him get back on his feet again.

1: visit Bob’s GoFundMe page and pledge some support. Don’t forget to leave your avatar’s name in the comments (unless you prefer anonymous) so we can say thanks!

2: we invite you to share this initiative with your friends, guilds, and community orgs in-game. Help spread the word and good works!

3: Feel free to host in-game events to spread awareness, celebrate Bob’s work (its everywhere), and help drive some fundraising. Together, we can play for a cause and help a great guy recover from an unfortunate circumstance.

About Bob the Builder:​

The man in the infamous bunny suit, Bob joined Portalarium in 2011. He was responsible for building most of the in-game homes (we live in) and designing the decorations (especially the furniture) that make our homes unique and beautiful across New Britannia! Bob is a very humble and helpful person, and we’re super-thrilled to lend him a hand. To quote Bob directly: “I’m humbled and speechless. This is the best community in the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

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